Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-18
precious young wiper and q poaching

"You're 8" begsn Dick, furiously.
"Silence Talbot" cried the sergeant,
and he was pulled away.
"And look here, constable" said the
magistrate, 'you had better have that
dawg of his drowned or destroyed; it is
a vicious cur"
"All right, your worship" was the re-
sponge, while Dick, clutching Bingo
tightly and despairingly, was lugged
rather roughly away.
Now it CHANGED that in the constable,
! Sergeant Hawksley suddenly discovered
an Old comrade, with whom he Immediate
" fraternIzed, and to whose kindly care
he specially commended Dick, for the
worthy non-commissioned officer was
really interested in the homeless but
spirited lad who seemed to have no friend
but his dog, and was honestly concerned
for the mistake of which he knew himself
to be the inno cent cause.
Thus he told Dick to "keep up his
spirits till morrow" when he should
see him again; meanwhile, with some
forethought, he made arrangement about
food for him, and went away, after which
poor Dick, feeling very lonely and mlser-
able, was confined in small apartment
q kind of cell, with wooden bed and
couple of blankets as furniture, nothing
more-wherein TO pass the entire day and
following night as best he could; his
only solace amid his new effliction being
that his dog was left with him at least till
the time expired.
Committed to his own reflections now,
they took a very dsrkeped, bitter turn in
deed, es the silent and lonely hours of
the day passed slowly-oh, how slowly !!
on.
In his solitude he thought much over
| the whole situation in which he found
himself. His military ardour was con-
siderably cooled, Ii not crushed; his
natural pride and sensitiVeness had
received more than one most serious
shock.
In the Western Fusiliers he would not
and could not associate with such re-
pulsive fellows as Corporal Cutters and
his companions; thus he resolved if
he could to avoid it; that gallant corps
should not be favored with his services
therein, nor would he undergo the fatal
ceremony Of attestation therefor.
He remembered to have heard Mon
tsgue Lonsdale say that at this very
period many good fellows who had failed
to commit the barberisms of Cheucer to
heart, and the most obscure passages Of
Shakespeare to memory for Exams, and
had failed to get suitable employment of
any kind after years wasted in useless
study, had enlisted; and that in one hus
ssr regiment there WAS an entire troop of
public school and university men, who
had pluckily become troopers cs their
only opening in life; while In the ranks
OF the famous Black Watch alone there
were no less than forty Scottish gentle
men serving as privates; SO all corps,
thought Dick, could not be like II. III. Flu
slliers with all the mystical letters.
Anyhow, he should 'levsnt."
He would turn can pair OF heels to
the whole matter il possible, and just as
the sun was setting and darkness closing,
be would set about an examination of the
place in which ne found himself, aided
and inspired by all that he mad read in his
tales of boys adventures by flood and
field, and their hair breadth escapes from
savages, pirstes, man. eating tigers and
demons toe.
The narrow closet or cell-if such it
was-opened, he knew. II q corridor, ad
joining the office or apartment, occupied
by che Inspector and his constables, whose
SOlCcS 5uO nSoFJ lOOtstSpcj " Wy
distance and closed doors, ne could hear
from time to time.
It's ceiling was lofty, and 1t had q small
window somewhat high in the external
wall, but above his herm1t-like couch,
and thereby not inaccessible to one who
could climb deity as q squirrel, like
Dick.
With boy-like agility he scrambled up,
and through the dirt panes saw
that it was only about thrice his own
height from the ground without, and over
looked kind of meadow, beyond which
spread the open country; while in the
immediate foreground were some Leaf
less trees and hedgerOws, already becom
ing shrouded in the rising, silvery haze
of the evening.
He found also that the window was
migrated, but secured by a screw, stiff
ened by rust, through upper and lower
sashes; thus his place Of sequestration
WAS certainly not one for prisoners of
desperate class. Both sashes, II open,
would make an aperture SO small that no
fully grown man Of moderate size could
have escaped thereby; but Dick WAS a
boy-youDg, supple and slender-snd
boys can achieve feats OF agility in which
gr6Da Ql6r would ISL. Do HIS Splits
rose, and could he but get the window,or
even the lower half thereof, open without
noise or exciting an alarm, he resolved
that his place in woodstock should be vs.
can't in the morning.
This desire was enhanced by a certain
ty that once or twice he heard the voice
OF Corporal Cutters in the constsbles'
room.
The darkness fell completely, and Bin
go whined end crept close to him for
companionship and warmth. "Faith in a
beloved superior is perhaps the most
beautiful and affecting of all the attrib-
utes of a dog" says 8 writer; and cer-
tainly the little terrier had the most sub
lime faith IN Dick.
The latter could not bring himself to
recline on, or even use in any way, the
blanket assigned for his use. He was
sharp enough to imagine, with great dis
gust, what manner Of inmate might have
used it last; and now, boy like, his spirit
rose higher, as the time for action came
nearer.
But If his fingers proved unable to turn
the old screw and open the window, or If
Bingo barked at the attempt and raised
an alarm-what then?
Dick shrewdly expected that final
visit would be paid him about or after
nightfall. Then he you'd be left COM
pletely to himself, and have about four
teen hours of darkness and gloom in
which to make the attempt to escape from